THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA?

A wife cheats on her husband with another man; a man cheats on his wife with a goat. Yes, a goat.

That’s the premise for Edward Albee’s Tony Award-winning play, “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” at Pomona’s dA Center for the Arts playing Friday through Nov. 3.

“We’ve even created a ‘black box’ theater at the dA,” said Randy Lopez, co-founder of Ophelia’s Jump, the theatrical company staging the production. “It’s a very intimate setting for an intimate experience.”

The play deals with several real-life issues and is not suitable for children. “It’s a show that has us question relationships,” Lopez said. “It does bring up bestiality, but that’s not what it’s all about. This is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated work and a Tony Award winner. There’s a lot going on here.”

The show is about a married, middle-aged man named Martin who is at the zenith of his career, said the show’s director, Kevin Slay. “Martin is turning 50. he is very successful and he’s living this perfect life. Then the bottom falls out when he admits to his friend that he’s in love with a goat.”

Martin and his son Billy, away at college have a strained relationship. Martin can’t accept the fact that his son is gay.

Edward Albee, who also wrote “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf,” is known for stretching limits.

“He writes plays about relationships at the edge,” Slay said. “It’s like a line is drawn and he says, ‘What if we take that line and move it further, take it where no one wants to go.’ It’s interesting to see in a make-believe way where that line is.”

There are many trials in life people face every day such as severe injury, death, divorce — and people get through them.

“But people don’t consider bestiality or what would happen in a relationship facing that kind of challenge, how we’d find our way through that, how we’d deal with it,” Slay said.

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This is a very “what-if” type of play, he said. “What if a family member came home with news that devastating — how would we react?”